The injection of a radioisotope into a living body that concentrates in a tumor and is imaged to produce an image of a patient including the tumor is well known in the art. However, large-scale images of a tumor and its environment in the patient require large gamma cameras that are suitable for use prior to surgery but are not practical during surgery due to their size.
Olson et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,888 and Thurston et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,133 describe gamma probes that can be used during surgery to detect gamma radiation signals to grossly locate a tumor without providing an image.
Soluri et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,744 B1, Scibilia et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,341 and Thurston et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,704 describe hand-held gamma imaging detectors connected to remote image displays.
Gamma probes connected to a remote image display that are based on solid-state detectors are known and exemplified by a hand held pixilated detector of N. Wainer in U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,710, assigned to Elgems, Inc., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.